Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suggested that President Biden should talk about abortion more so people know he is a president who is “fighting” for the right to an abortion.
Asked by CBS News “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan if Biden, who is of Catholic faith, needs to talk about abortion more, Whitmer said, “I think it would be good if he did.”
“I know that one tenet of his belief system is that women and only women at — with their families and — and health care professionals are the ones who know what decision is right for them,” said Whitmer, co-chair for Biden’s reelection campaign. “And that he is fighting and going to continue to fight to make sure that that is squarely the ability … [of] an American woman to make that decision.”
Brennan then asked if Biden needs to be the messenger on that more, to which Whitmer said, “I don’t think it would hurt.”
I certainly hope that isn’t the argument they’re making. Because now is the exact time to make demands, especially from the left. Talking about student loan forgiveness is because of concessions that had to be made when Bernie Sanders dropped out. That’s the same pathetic argument. The right makes whenever there’s a mass shooting and someone wants to talk about gun control. It’s the weakest most defeatist argument that could possibly be made because what that argument is saying is that your actual morals and politics don’t matter. But they do.
You can in fact have it both ways. You can make demands and still not want some right-wing nut job to get in office. This argument is exactly why abortion has not been protected by law for well over 40 years, and it’s why we’re never going to see it protected by law in our lifetimes. People too afraid to upset the cart and make demands of the people they’re going to elect.
Significantly more important than the presidency is all of the state elections. Without those politicians on board, the president can’t do anything. Now is the exact time to demand any of those politicians wanting to be elected must agree that codifying abortion in law is a top priority. We’re already seeing the effects of radical right-wing bullshit killing women because of lack of access, and I’m personally not willing to trade the lives of those women just to make some dipshit political organization happy.